NEW ORLEANS — Garbage cans across New Orleans are getting ripe after Hurricane Ida brought trash pick up to a standstill in the city.
Relief should come within the week though. Mayor LaToya Cantrell put out a statement Saturday saying that the trash should be picked up from every neighborhood by late next week.
"I want our residents to know that my team and I are doing everything possible to build capacity to rid our city streets of trash for good," Cantrell said. "I am also asking for your continued patience as we bounce back from Ida and humble ourselves as our neighbors took an even stronger blow."
According to the City, contractors have already completed the Monday/Thursday routes and the Tuesday/Friday routes will be done by Sunday. People who have their trash picked up on Wednesdays and Saturdays should expect it gone by late next week, Cantrell's office said.
The City is also calling in backup by issuing an emergency procurement for household solid waste collection. Those additional resources should be available next week, according to Cantrell's office.
In Jefferson Parish, like Orleans, the delay in pickups and the additional trash from cleaning out refrigerators mean that trucks are filling up more quickly and have to detour to empty the contents more frequently
Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant told NOLA.com that backups at the River Birch landfill in Avondale have turned each trip to the dump into an hours-long ordeal for her city's haulers.
A Jefferson Parish spokesman told NOLA.om that all neighborhoods in unincorporated JP have had at least one pickup. In Orleans, that isn't necessarily the case.
As for storm debris, removal began on Tuesday, Sept. 7. For more information on when debris will be removed from your area and where pickup is currently happening, visit ready.nola.gov.
